


Red

by Xiuhcoatl



Category: Original Work
Genre: Blood Magic, Dragons, Multi, Sorcerers, War, black magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 15:12:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12867237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xiuhcoatl/pseuds/Xiuhcoatl
Summary: Radio wakes in an abandoned ruin, seemingly left for dead. Now, without memory, and a dangerous symbol emblazoning his past, he must make allies and uncover his past in order to fight back evil slavers and sorcerers that are destroying his new home.





	Red

**Author's Note:**

> Ah HA!! After a painstaking break and a year or two worth of writers block, I realized my first rendition of this story was absolute garbage. So I'm back to completely rewrite and improve what I had before. I hope you enjoy, and if you have any feedback, feel free to leave it in the comments or email me at franksry@gmail.com

The boy’s eyes fluttered open as he lay on his back in the middle of the blackened expanse of crumbling stone. He tried to shake the fog out of his brain, with little success. He stood and surveyed the desolation around him, fallen trees, charred timber, and the smell of blood invaded his senses. The nameless boy looked for anyway to identify himself and he realized he was shirtless, and freezing.

The boy looked down and saw a large scar on his chest, pale lines cutting RAIDA into his skin.

Raida took his name and tried to look through the fog in his brain, but only one thing rang through the darkness, _The Coat._

Raida searched the ground around him and found an ornately designed black and red robe, he picked up the garment and found slightly worn out armor under it. Raida set the robe aside and picked up the armor, undoing the rope harnesses that held the set together. He unpacked the armor and found a large crest decorating the chestpiece.

Raida repacked the armor and donned the over-sized robe, slinging the armor pack over his shoulder. He looked to the dark rim of the nearby forest and began a hazy, hungry trek into the dark night.

Raida stumbled through the forest, hours ago, his hunger had taken him over. He began to wonder how long it had been since he had last eaten. He looked down and parted the coat, noticing that his ribs were easily visible through his skin.

_How do I have this knowledge?_ Raida thought in a moment of realization. The initial fogginess in his mind had cleared, but it was replaced by the haze dehydration and starvation.

Raida began to approach what seemed like the edge of a road in the distance. He saw a dim glint of metal reflecting moonlight moving down the road. Raida broke into a sprint, at least, it would have been a sprint if his physical state was better.

As Raida came to the end of the forest, his foot was caught on an unseen root and he was sent sprawling onto the road.

* * *

 

Larrow watched as someone rushed out of the forest and landed face first on the dirt road. Larrow lowered his guard, as this person was obviously no threat. He nudged his horse, who obediently stopped next to the person in the dirt.

As he dismounted, Larrow noticed the very exquisite quality of the robes, _Noble?_ He thought. Larrow reached down to try and wake them, but froze as he noticed the armor pack. Larrow grabbed the pack and flipped it to reveal a forgotten symbol.

Larrow recoiled from the person lying unconscious in the dirt as if he had just burst into flames. _Impossible!_ Larrow stood and went to his horse, pulled a paper and pen from his bag, and began to write a note, as difficult as that was to do with only moonlight to guide his hand. Halfway through writing the note, a thought occurred to him. He crumpled the paper and began a new note.

Larrow put the note, as well as a map into an envelope, which he inserted into the armor pack. Larrow also grabbed some rations and laid them next to the unconscious heap. He mounted his horse and rode off into the night, never to speak of this again.

* * *

 

Raida woke up with his mind full of cotton and his mouth full of dirt. Raida pushed himself up with much effort and found a brown package next to him, he unwrapped it and discovered a leather waterskin and some dried meat. As Raida started to lift the water to his mouth, a thought pulled to the surface, drink it slowly, prevent shock to your body.

Raida took a small sip of the water to rinse all of the dirt out of his mouth, then took a long swallow of the water before recapping the skin and grabbing the meat from the package. He stuffed the meat into his coat pocket and bent to lift the armor from the road.

As he picked up the armor pack, an envelope fell to the dirt. Raida stared at the stark white parchment for a time before reaching to pick it up. Raida slung his pack over his shoulder as he opened the envelope with one hand. He dropped the envelope as he pulled two separate documents from it. One was obviously a map, but upon further inspection, the other revealed itself to be a letter.

_Salutations,_

_You don't know me, and you may not know what the symbol on your armor signifies. You may not know who you are, but that does not matter. What does matter is that there are people who do know that symbol. As such, you need to hide that symbol until we can meet in person. Hopefully that’s soon, but you may need time to build up your strength._

_Unmet Acquaintance_

_Larrow_

_L.K._

Raida looked at the crest on his armor, puzzled. It was an upside down sword with a crown sitting atop the hilt of the sword, with a background of red fire. He shook his head and refolded the letter before sticking it in his coat pocket. He then unfolded the map and saw a marking, which he assumed was the location he was currently at. To the west, there was a small village named Arulan, and far to the east was a very large city named Ceru. Raida didn’t know which way was west, but to his right he could see a thin plume of smoke far in the distance, he assumed there was a camp in which he could ask.

With that, he folded the map and headed toward the smoke.

 

Mere minutes after Raida had started moving towards the smoke, it began to fade. At first he was alarmed that he was going to miss the people that might have been staying there. _Calm yourself, there are only two ways they can head down this road. If they start moving away from me, even if they are riding horses, they probably won’t be doing any hard riding. If I continue to walk long into the night, I might be able to find their camp again._

 

Raida’s thought came true as he continued walking well after the sun had gone down, and eventually he smelled smoke on the chill wind. A smile broke out on his face and he began to see a dull light coming from somewhere within trees. He began to move into the forest, his mind telling him to be as quiet as possible. Despite the intelligent training buried in his mind, he knew his body couldn’t begin to handle stealth in its current state.

Raida walked into a clearing in which he found six bed rolls, four of which were currently occupied. He removed his robe, revealing his malnourished frame and scarred torso. Behind him, he heard the sharp intake of a surprised gasp. He turned and turned his eyes past the light of the fire, into the darkness of the forest. He locked eyes with a woman crouched in the darkness, and she rushed him.

* * *

 

Raida came to with a jolt, there was multiple blades pressed against him in various lethal locations. He gasped in surprise and felt the strain in his muscles, causing him to look down.

In each hand, he was holding two armored women aloft, each unconscious. At least, he hoped they were unconscious. He set them down calmly, looking into the green eyes of the woman with the glittering steel of her spear pressed to his neck. He glanced at the four women pressing deadly metal into his skin, glad that the fire was to his back.

“Who are you, and what do you want?” The green-eyed spear-wielder interrogated.

Raida shot her a look, before realizing she couldn’t see his face. He cautiously raised his hand to grip the spearhead. The woman tightened her grip, but Raida simply moved the spear away from his throat and down to his ribcage. “I believe my name is Raida, and I wish to know which direction Arulan is,” Raida said shortly.

“Why did you attack our camp?” The blue eyed swordmaiden asked.

“Uhh, I didn’t mean to?” Raida answered.

“What does that mean?” The spear-wielder pressed.

“I woke up in the ruins nearby, I fell unconscious in the road, found your camp, and that’s all I really remember.”

The spear-wielder glanced at all of the other women, most likely to determine if he was still a threat. She nodded to them and they lowered their weapons, but she held hers aloft.

“To get to Arulan, walk back to the road and turn right. It’s about a day and a half walk from here. Just turn right when you reach the street.”

Raida looked back to the road and nodded to the green eyed woman, “Thank you ma’am, I’m sorry about your friends here.” Raida stuck out a hand. “If I could, I would like to know your name.”

The woman hesitated, but lowered her spear and grasped the hand, “I’m Fulvia. I serve directly under the queen in Ceru.”

Raida glanced down at Fulvia’s arm, his eyes widened as he was the symbol emblazoned on her arm. It was identical to his own, minus the crown. He looked back into her eyes, releasing her hand.

“Well, again, I apologize for hurting your team, but I do need to get going.”

Fulvia nodded and Raida walked past her, grabbing his coat and armor before walking to the dark road. He looked back into the glow of the camp, shook his head, and started walking towards Arulan, glad the women hadn’t seen his face.

* * *

 

Arete was sweeping the veranda of his inn when he saw the boy entered the town. Arete watched as the shambling, near-corpse boy shuffled into town. He set down his broom and approached the starving boy. He set his hand on the boy’s shoulder and asked him how long the boy had gone without eating. Raida gave Arete his name and all of the vague information he had.

Arete led the boy inside and fed him some of the stew he had prepared for the miners’ lunch break. Even after eating, the boy, Raida, seemed too out of sorts to be standing.

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience,” Raida said suddenly. “But I’ve been walking for close to 30 hours. And who knows the last time I ate, other than the dried meat.”

“No inconvenience on my part, I couldn’t just let some kid die on my watch,” Arte said, cleaning the dishes off the bar and wiping it down. “You have a look about you, makes me think you were a real tough lad before the malnourishment and all.”

Raida looked into the Arete’s eyes, and Arete noticed the strangest thing.

“Your eyes are red, not bloodshot, but they’re red the same way my eyes are blue. There’s a story behind you, boy. Whether you actually don’t know it or just want it kept secret is your business, but there’s something more to you.”

Raida dragged his hands down his face in frustration. “I’d like to know as well, perhaps we’ll learn together.”

Arete scratched his chin as he considered the prospect. “I’ll tell you what,” Arete said. “When we get you fed properly, I’ll have you do the heavy lifting around for me.”

“Sounds good, sir,” Raida said, holding out a hand to innkeeper.

Arete grasped the hand, “Well, I am a reasonable man, sometimes, at least.”

Raida chuckled as they parted and he turned to head up the stairs. “Just take any open room for tonight, we’ll figure out something more permanent tomorrow,” Arete called to him.

“Thank you, sir,” Raida replied as he headed up the stairs. On the second floor, he found multiple closed doors but he looked up and saw a lever for the attic trapdoor above and he reached up to it and pulled on it.

The door gave way and a ladder dropped into the hallway. Raida grabbed a rung and pulled himself into the attic.

The attic was mostly empty, other than some dust, spare blankets, and some of what Raida assumed was extra stock in a couple wooden crates. Raida finished the crawl up the ladder and was able to stand in the attic with a decent amount of head clearance. He moved the blankets around until he had a makeshift bed. He covered the single window with the lid of one of the open crates. He made his way back to the bed in the darkness and flopped down on the blankets, asleep before he landed.


End file.
